Curtis Mewbourne
Editor's note: This profile is part of Hart Energy's 50th anniversary Hall of Fame series honoring industry pioneers of the past 50 years and the Agents of Change (ACEs) who are leading the energy sector into the future.
Curtis Mewbourne founded the eponymous Mewbourne Oil Co. in 1965 and lived to see it become the top private oil and gas producer in the booming Permian Basin.
Mewbourne (1935-2022) is remembered as a consummate oilman and supporter of higher education who built a tiny Texas company into what has become the top private driller in the Delaware Basin—largely in New Mexico.
“He was just a great oilman and a great man,” said current Mewbourne CEO Ken Waits, who joined the company 40 years ago and never left, seeing his boss as a father figure. “When I think about him, I think about how proud he would be about the success of the Mewbourne Oil Co.—and I mean the responsible, long-term success.
“It’s a credit to Curtis and his vision. He was truly a pioneer.”
A nearly 60-year-old company, Mewbourne Oil first found success in the 1970s in New Mexico, but took off more when the shale boom translated to the Permian in the last decade. Mewbourne surged further in the last three years, rapidly ramping up activity levels during the pandemic when others were scaling back.
“They’ve been in the Delaware a very long time,” said James Taylor, senior analyst for East Daley. “They were there before the boom. That carries a lot of advantages. You’re the first one to the prize if you think about it that way. It’s better to be lucky than smart, but they’re both.”
Early days to today
A native of Shreveport, La., Curtis Mewbourne made the fateful choice to major in petroleum engineering at the University of Oklahoma.
He graduated in 1957 and joined the U.S. Army. He entered the oil sector with the Arkansas Fuel Oil Co. and later joined the First National Bank in Dallas, but he left the bank in 1965 to start Mewbourne Oil.
According to his obituary, “The company’s initial assets were two used chairs and a desk given by his former employer … the balance of a monthly paycheck, and one very dedicated and tenacious employee who had to use the payphone in the lobby to make calls.”
Mewbourne started out in the Midland Basin with middling success and expanded to the New Mexico side of the Permian in 1970 without finding much more. Mewbourne eventually hit it big in 1973 with a natural gas well—Peterson Com. #1—along New Mexico’s Pecos River.
“In the ’70s, in his words, ‘The struggle for survival ended and the long journey to victory began,’” Waits said of Curtis Mewbourne.
And, with years of estate planning and management succession training, the family company will remain in the Mewbourne name with no plans to sell, said Waits.
In a statement on behalf of the family, Mewbourne CFO Roe Buckley, who is Mewbourne’s son-in-law, said, “Curtis Mewbourne was a real champion of the oil and gas business. He loved the independent, pioneering nature of the business with all of its challenges, opportunities and rewards. As he did throughout his life, if he were alive today, he would be encouraging young people to pursue a career in this wonderful industry with both his enthusiasm and his resources.”
Curtis Mewbourne kept thinking about the next generation and gave back to his alma mater and other universities—partly for recruiting purposes—and the University of Oklahoma in 2007 renamed its College of Earth and Energy for Mewbourne.
Earlier this year, in consultation with Waits and the family, the college launched the new GeoEnergy Engineering program within the college’s Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering.
—Jordan Blum, editorial director